We challenged one of the Classic FM team to make one of the most complex cakes in the world – the opera cake

29 August 2017, 10:14 | Updated: 29 August 2017, 10:27

The classic opera cake is layers (and layers) of sponge, ganache, Italian meringue and despair. Oh no, NOT THAT LAST ONE. It’s notoriously difficult – and was even one of the technical challenges on the Great British Bake Off 2014. So obviously we challenged one of the team to make it ahead of the launch of the brand new series

Bake Off is back! So, to mark the occasion, we challenged a member of the Classic FM team to tackle the most famous musical cake ever made…

Here’s the Paris Opera – it’s an opulent, richly decorated building.

So it’s only appropriate that the cake named after it – the extremely French opéra cake, is one of the most complicated, overblown and complex desserts ever to grace a cake stand.

Here it is in all it's cordon-bleu glory:

It’s so tricky in fact it has featured as a technical challenge on the Great British Bake Off. Which was particularly mean of the judges.

Learning as I go tho

OK. Italian meringue.

One of the key components of opera cake is coffee-flavoured Italian meringue buttercream. It is with the realisation that all those words describe just one component of this cake that I begin to think I am out of my depth.

I only learned what Italian meringue was about 10 minutes ago but those 10 minutes have been a rollercoaster of terror, nausea and anxiety.

Basically, in musical terms, it is the Well-Tempered Clavier of the patisserie world: it needs to look effortless, be filled with air BUT it's actually one of the most difficult things on the planet. OK THEN.

The finishing touches…

And…

SUMMARY

If you *do* know what an Italian meringue is and *do* own a sugar thermometer, you can try baking an opera cake yourself – here's the recipe I used on The Telegraph, but there are plenty more available online.